The 1/144 Braille Scale World of Sentinel Chicken

[Sentinel Chicken]

Today's progress:



Got the fuselage finally all buttoned up as best as I could. I found that as I fixed one seam/joint and re-aligned another, it cracked open the seam I just fixed. That's right. Sea urchins in a Speedo. The main problem area topside was above the flight deck. What I did here was to use clamps to hold in position as best possible and then glue a thin sheet of styrene over the area and then slinged putty at it to try and contour it into the fuselage lines as best as possible. When I paint this beast, that's still going to be visible but I sized it so it at least looks like it belongs there. Once it was dried, then I removed the clamps and the area held up nicely.



The second area that was pissing me off was just aft of the step on the underside. Same technique here, I cut a sheet of styrene to fit the area, glued it over the seam and then faired it in with putty as best as could be done. Since this is the underside, I wasn't looking for that styrene sheet to match the whole area, I just needed it to look plausible enough since no one's really going to be looking under there who doesn't want to get kicked in the junk.

No, just kidding about that last part. I haven't had to assault a JMN since my last restraining order at a show, wink-wink.



As you can see from the first two shots there's some work being done on the nose. I found my Cobra Company 1/144 Privateer conversion set- picked this one up back in the 1990s at a place in Maryland called "Nostalgic Plastic" that I think's long closed. I'd used some of the parts years ago on a half-finished conversion of the Minicraft Liberator into a Privateer before I gave up on it. So those teardrop blisters are a lost cause thanks to me being more ham-fisted back years ago but the ERCO nose turret was untouched. I cut away a section of the nose and then filled it in with strips of styrene built up in layers that I'll sand down to recontour the nose to fit the nose turret.

The flight deck transparency fits like hell into the the space in the fuselage. I'll have to do a bris or something to that part of the fuselage to get the transparency to fit, let alone sit right.

I'm thinking of taking the waist blisters from the Minicraft 1/144 Catalina kit to use as waist gun positions on this build in addition to other gun positions.

[RussC]

Today's progress:

Got the fuselage finally all buttoned up as best as I could. I found that as I fixed one seam/joint and re-aligned another, it cracked open the seam I just fixed. That's right. Sea urchins in a Speedo. The main problem area topside was above the flight deck. What I did here was to use clamps to hold in position as best possible and then glue a thin sheet of styrene over the area and then slinged putty at it to try and contour it into the fuselage lines as best as possible. When I paint this beast, that's still going to be visible but I sized it so it at least looks like it belongs there. Once it was dried, then I removed the clamps and the area held up nicely.

The second area that was pissing me off was just aft of the step on the underside. Same technique here, I cut a sheet of styrene to fit the area, glued it over the seam and then faired it in with putty as best as could be done. Since this is the underside, I wasn't looking for that styrene sheet to match the whole area, I just needed it to look plausible enough since no one's really going to be looking under there who doesn't want to get kicked in the junk.

No, just kidding about that last part. I haven't had to assault a JMN since my last restraining order at a show, wink-wink.

As you can see from the first two shots there's some work being done on the nose. I found my Cobra Company 1/144 Privateer conversion set- picked this one up back in the 1990s at a place in Maryland called "Nostalgic Plastic" that I think's long closed. I'd used some of the parts years ago on a half-finished conversion of the Minicraft Liberator into a Privateer before I gave up on it. So those teardrop blisters are a lost cause thanks to me being more ham-fisted back years ago but the ERCO nose turret was untouched. I cut away a section of the nose and then filled it in with strips of styrene built up in layers that I'll sand down to recontour the nose to fit the nose turret.

The flight deck transparency fits like hell into the the space in the fuselage. I'll have to do a bris or something to that part of the fuselage to get the transparency to fit, let alone sit right.

I'm thinking of taking the waist blisters from the Minicraft 1/144 Catalina kit to use as waist gun positions on this build in addition to other gun positions.

Neat idea for PBY mid fuselage stations, they were great for rescue as well as guns at that spot. Like your solution to the hull-step. Are you going to keep with that single tall tail from Hughes design?

Nostalgic is actually still around, I think they just became a division of the outfit "Rare Plane Detective" from Las Vegas

http://www.rare-planedetective.com/

[]  Do what I do, use the tail to trip them up, works like a charm, yet deniable. Use only if you can't bring them to the dark-side though.

[NARSES2]

I've often looked at this kit in model shops but shied away from it - do I succumb and put her in Coastal Command colours ? 

Lovely flying Wing Russ 

[Sentinel Chicken]

One of those pic's just screams "flying wing, flying wing" 

This is looking good, always had a fascination with this large flying boats

Too late. Used that exact part too along with the 8 fans.

Now that's cool. The red/white chevrons on the center wing kick that build up a notch. Maybe I can do something on a smaller scale with some B-29 wings. After this build is done, a B-29 whiff is shrimpy by comparison!

[Sentinel Chicken]

Neat idea for PBY mid fuselage stations, they were great for rescue as well as guns at that spot. Like your solution to the hull-step. Are you going to keep with that single tall tail from Hughes design?

Good question. I was thinking of sticking with single tall tail in line with the idea that the PBK-1 Tarpon was a simple scale down of the Spruce Goose, but after dry-fitting all the major components this morning I'm not so sure. Twin tails would be neat. I was thinking (should I go the twin tails route) of cutting down the vertical fin to the point where the horizontal tailplane attaches so the tail is in effect pylon mounted and then putting the tail gun position there atop the "pylon" formed by the base of the original vertical fin.

This is the fun of what-if building for me. The concept evolves as you build and sometimes ends up diverging from your original plans.

[RussC]

Thanks for the  's on the Dornier Flying Wing design.

I know what you mean about turns and changes. It has actually set me to wonder if there was ever a what-if build I had where it went to the end without some adjustment from the original sketch or vision. I'm going with no.

[Sentinel Chicken]

Progress shots from yesterday:



The 1/144 Cobra Company resin ERCO nose ball turret in place. When the transparency is in place, you won't be able to see much of the opening behind it. Not sure where the gun barrels are from the original conversion kit, but those are easy crafted from styrene rod. You can see the flight deck is gonna need some work.



Side view of the ERCO turret. I may need to some touch up sanding work to improve the way the sidewalls fair into the rest of the fuselage. If I still have the motivation, I may add a spray guard below the nose turret.



Dry fit of all the major assemblies. It's always great to get this point in a build when you can start to flesh out what you've had visualized in your head. I may decide to stick with the tall single tail as opposed to kitbashing a twin tail assembly. While the Consolidated PB2Y Coronado had twin tails, the even larger Martin PB2M/JRM Mars had a single tail. I may go with some of the features of the Mars like adding smaller cantilevered struts off the floats. There'll be a radar in a "doghouse" fairing above the flight deck which should help camouflage the seam work I needed to do there. The Catalina waist blisters will go behind the wing (obviously) but now jugging what to do about the rest of the defensive armament. I was going to add the B-29's tail gun position under the vertical fin plus a dorsal turret from the Minicraft B-24 kit. The PB4Y Privateer in its later variants had two dorsal turrets, I thought about doing that as well.

I thought about adding a gun turret just aft of each inboard nacelle on the tops of the wing, but that may require more slinging of putty than I want to do as I'll need to a lot of work on the wing/fuselage junctions and possibly the tail gun position depending upon what I did there.

I was reading that the waist turrets on the Privateer when depressed fully downward converged on a point 30 feet below the aircraft which meant that the ventral ball turret could be dispensed with. I'll need to position the Catalina blisters to try and replicate the same effect.

Also now thinking about options for the weapons bay. I was originally going to build bomb bays into the wings, but then I thought with as large as the PBK-1 Tarpon is, I could do it Sunderland style with doors on the sides of the fuselage that open up to rails under the wings that torpedoes, bombs, and mines could be rolled out onto for dropping. I'll need to figure something out before I attach the wing assembly for good.

I loves me the holiday weekends, I can get lots of building done.

[Mossie]

Looking great so far.  I think Consolidated had similar plans for Sunderland style bomb racks on one of their flying boats that never got past the prototype stage, can't remember which one.

If you're interested in big Flying boat designs, Convair Advanced Designs: Secret Projects from San Diego, 1923-1962 is well worth getting.  First half covers flying boats, second covers bombers up until San Diego was closed.  There's a a second volume due on fighters, transports and 'radical 'concepts' but it seems to be delayed.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Convair-Advanced-Designs-Projects-1923-1962/dp/1580071333

[Sentinel Chicken]

Time to work on the tail gun position. This is the first weekend of the summer for the kids, so after breakfast they all stampeded upstairs to play Xbox, leaving me a bit of undisturbed time to do some work on this kitbash. I used the tail gunner's position from the Minicraft B-29A kit. That kit's vertical fin sucks, so I'd never build the kit as a B-29 anyway so it's now a what-if parts donor as well. I cut away the aft fuselage and removed the vertical fin with a good old fashioned Dremel attack. I found that in 1/144 scale this part of the B-29's fuselage did fit quite nicely as a replacement for the Spruce Goose's tail cone. Fortunately I got the cuts right on the money which should help minimize the amount of putty-sand-repeat-putty-sand-repeat.

[Sentinel Chicken]

If you're interested in big Flying boat designs, Convair Advanced Designs: Secret Projects from San Diego, 1923-1962 is well worth getting.  First half covers flying boats, second covers bombers up until San Diego was closed.  There's a a second volume due on fighters, transports and 'radical 'concepts' but it seems to be delayed.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Convair-Advanced-Designs-Projects-1923-1962/dp/1580071333

I've got that one and it's a lot of fun to flip through and build whiffs in your head. The flying wing twin engine patrol bomber designs are something I'm contemplating on building.

[Sentinel Chicken]

Got a bit more time after the kids all went to bed to try and finish up the tail gunner's position on my kitbash. In this shot I've dry fitted the tail gunner's transparencies as well as the guns and gun fairing. What passes off as the twin guns in the Minicraft B-29A kit is a joke and a half, I'll probably just make some out of styrene rod which will look better. Sprayed the assembly with a light coat of gray to help visualize any spots that might need more putty-sand-repeat. I think I'm about done here, though.

[McColm]

Wow

[sequoiaranger]

Kudos to you for even attempting it!

My uncle (USN Pilot) flew a Martin Mars into San Diego once, flying low over our house and waggling the giant wings!!

I really like how this massive project is coming along!

[RotorheadTX]

Sea urchins in a speedo??   

JP, you owe me a new keyboard............

[Sentinel Chicken]

As my Hughes/Kaiser PBK-1 Tarpon build crosses the halfway point, it's time to start another build to keep me from losing interest in the patrol bomber Spruce Goose. I picked up this kit at the Squadron Open House and even though it's 1/144, it's surprising just how large an aircraft the Shenyang J-8 Finback is. It makes the MiG-21 look positively diminutive by comparison and I have one of the Eduard 1/144 MiG-21 two packs that recently was added to the stash. This is the Trumpeter Finback- looks like a pretty decent kit, the main drawback being the panel lines are too prominent. The missiles look too simplistic and don't match what you see on the box art. No worries, I probably won't even use them. From what I can see from a cursory review of the sprues, the overall shape looks good. I'll be building this one nearly out of the box but as a strike aircraft with extra ordinance/weapons pylons and perhaps some targeting pods. I'll leave the user nation a mystery and see if you can guess it as I progress with this build.